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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23176660">and the day could no longer contain me</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuenchiestCactusJuice99/pseuds/QuenchiestCactusJuice99'>QuenchiestCactusJuice99</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alchemy pisses Katsuki off, Bakugou Katsuki Swears A Lot, Bakugou Katsuki is a Good Friend, Bakugou Katsuki-centric, Canon-Typical Violence, Dimension jumping lol, Katsuki is mistaken for an Ishvalan, Katsuki is soft even tho he doesnt want to admit it, Mei and Katsuki are bffs, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, fuck ‘equivalent exchange’, kind of?</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 15:13:46</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,252</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23176660</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuenchiestCactusJuice99/pseuds/QuenchiestCactusJuice99</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Finding Katsuki is an accident - a day of boring lessons and pent-up curiosity and quick, repetitive <em>bangbangbang</em>’s from deep in the woods - but keeping him is entirely choice. There are many factors in this decision; none of them Katsuki’s opinion, but she thinks if she had to boil it all down to one reason, it would be this: he is only a little older than her, and Mei has never had a friend aside from Xiao Mei.</p><p>He does not look completely Xingese - his hair is lighter than anyone else’s, and Mei is much paler than his tan, and his eyes are a ferocious, unique red, but they slant like hers and isn’t there that light-haired, red-eyed desert nation to Xing’s west? - but he does not speak Xingese like a second language.</p><p>He does, however, use a wholly different dialect that seems more honorific-based and he still manages to sound ruder with than anyone Mei has ever met.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Bakugou Katsuki &amp; Mei Chang</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>84</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>268</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. as it begins and ends</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>What is GOOD readers? You might be thinking: Cactus, you prickly fuck, what the hell is this?</p><p>The answer is a MASTERPIECE. ,,, I swear I’m still working on my other fics. Enjoy!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Katsuki is loud, and quiet, and angry, and calm. He is both a mystery and no mystery at all - he speaks his mind, but not his past, and he doesn’t lie to her, but sometimes he will not answer her questions.</p><p>He does not tell her about his parents, or how he learned to light explosions from his hands, or where he got the little scar at the corner of his mouth, or why alkahestry makes him bristle and tense like everything about it screams <em>danger</em> even when they use it for healing.</p><p> </p><p>XxXOoO</p><p> </p><p>Because Mei is trained, she can tell Katsuki also is trained. The thing is that Mei doesn’t recognize what style he uses, and from a young age she’s learned to recognize the distinctive traits of thirty of the Chang’s rival clans.</p><p>According to her instructors, he doesn’t display any traits from the remaining nineteen. So she asks who taught him, and what style he uses.</p><p>He gets uncomfortable and she can tell because he twitches and his muscles start to coil and tense around his shoulders, pushing them closer to his ears.</p><p>“Uh,” He says. “... Aizawa-sensei. I don’t fuckin’ know?”</p><p>That’s strange, kind of, but not more so than any other of the strange things about Katsuki, so she lets it go.</p><p>“Ooh, <em>sensei,</em> that’s a new one! What’s it mean?”</p><p>Katsuki’s shoulders sink a little, tension unwinding, and Mei wonders if he realizes how much emotion his shoulders display.</p><p>... she wonders what it says that she can tell what he’s feeling by the set of his shoulders in relation to the rest of him. “It means teacher,” He says.</p><p>“Then how come it goes after the name?” She asks, curious. “It sounds kinda odd, as ‘Aizawa-teacher’, yeah?”</p><p>“... no?” Katsuki blinks a little, brow furrowing. “It works better at the end. And it doesn’t sound right at the beginning, that’s hella weird.”</p><p>Mei forgets how different their dialects are sometimes, even if the vast majority of their words and sentences are formulated the same way.</p><p> </p><p>XxXOoO </p><p> </p><p>“Getting fuckin’ <em>old, </em>pipsqueak.”</p><p>Mei whirls around with a grin, braids whipping behind her. “If I’m old, that makes you <em>ancient,”</em> She says brightly.</p><p>Katsuki rolls his eyes and shoves his hands in his pockets. He’s not dressed up, though really, he isn’t ever. Most people dress up way too much for her birthday celebration, and the fact that he hasn’t makes her inordinately pleased.</p><p>This year’s festival promises to be over the top and blown completely out of proportion, as usual. </p><p>Compared to the kimonos and sashes and fanciness of everyone else, Katsuki looks severely underdressed in his black tank top and the undecorated traditional pants she gave him over three months ago - he’s taped down the fabric at his ankles so the loose article poofs out above his stupid lace-up, weird-soled shoes.</p><p>He looks absolutely ridiculous. Mei laughs at him; he waits for her to finish with exorbitant patience and smacks her upside the head after she’s done.</p><p>The nearest clan member looks seconds from a heart attack. She thinks she hears a faraway exclamation of <em>“Heiress Chang!”</em> and promptly ignores it.</p><p>They walk for a little while, sniping back and forth good-naturedly with Katsuki garnering more and more askance looks from every clansmen they pass.</p><p>“How old are you turning again? Forty?”</p><p>“What are you?” She jeers back, “Seventy?”</p><p>“You damn brat-“</p><p>“Don’t strain your back trying to catch me, Grandpa!”</p><p>Their impromptu game of tag meets an unexpected end when they careen past The Fabric Flower and seamstress Chen ambushes Katsuki for another examination of the cloth his tank top is made of.</p><p>Of course, this grabs the attention of the owner of Shoe Craft across the way, who takes advantage of Katsuki’s misfortune to steal another look at his shoes.</p><p>Mei and Xiao Mei laugh at him from a safe distance until he explodes - not literally, this time - and then the chase is back on, except Katsuki is short a pair of shoes.</p><p>At some point, they end up winded and giggling (or swearing) in front of The Fabric Flower again, where Katsuki is returned his shoes and seamstress Chen visibly restrains herself from ambushing him again.</p><p>Mei decides that this is a good start to a long night of festivities. Xiao Mei agrees.</p><p>(Towards the end of the celebration, Katsuki stops her to hold out a small, square object neatly wrapped in light pink.</p><p>She lifts it gently from his palm, eyes wide, and unwraps it to find a smooth box with a little gold hinge and clasp. </p><p>She opens it, and inside is a pendant. It’s a little, jagged silver starburst inside a smooth, perfect circle, sitting on the soft red lining, and suddenly all those times Mei found Katsuki sweaty from hours inside Xan-Li’s forge make sense, because her earlier guess was that he and Xan-Li were hooking up and that’s a gross thought, even if they’re the same age.</p><p>“Did you… did you make this for me?” She asks, and tries not to acknowledge the waver in her voice.</p><p>Katsuki drags a hand through his hair, ducking his head a little. “Sort of,” He mumbles. “Soot-Face fucking did most of it.”</p><p>Mei muffles a watery giggle. Katsuki scowls and makes a halfhearted swipe at her that she ducks.</p><p>“Happy birthday, pipsqueak.”)</p><p> </p><p>XxXOoO </p><p> </p><p>Mei is petty, sometimes. Which means that, much to her clan’s collective perturbance, the fact that some feel the need to express their displeasure at her and Xiao Mei’s friendship with Katsuki leads to them talking long walks with him that take them everywhere in the entire compound.</p><p>Katsuki doesn’t protest this. Openly, anyway. He does address it, once. </p><p>(“They don’t like me.”)</p><p>She addresses it right back.</p><p>(“So? I like you.”</p><p>“They have a valid fucking reason, brat.”</p><p>“They don’t.”</p><p>“You’re an heiress, you little hellion. They have every right to be wary of random people making friends with their heiress.”</p><p>She scoffs. “Only when you <em>were</em> random. You’re not from any of the other clans, and you’re nice.”)</p><p>He, of course, puts in a token protest-</p><p>(“Define <em>nice.”</em></p><p>“Don’t have to, anyone with eyes should be able to tell you’re too grumpy to be a spy.”</p><p>“I… don’t think that’s how that works.”)</p><p>-but she wins, obviously-</p><p>(“Sure it is.”</p><p>“... if you say so.”</p><p>“I do.”)</p><p>-because he doesn’t bunch up the muscles in his shoulders when they go on walks ever again.</p><p> </p><p>XxXOoO </p><p> </p><p>Mei drifts awake to the sounds of swearing and the distinctive <em>bangbangbang</em> of Katsuki’s explosions.</p><p>This is... wrong, because she’s- she’s usually much quicker to wake up. She’s supposed to... she’s supposed to snap awake. Snappy-like. “Ka’suki?” She half-slurs.</p><p>
  <em>“Shh.”</em>
</p><p>Distantly, she registers that the explosions have stopped. <em>Arms,</em> she thinks. There are arms clamped around her and Katsuki’s knees to either side of her and she can’t remember getting out of bed. Where’s Xiao Mei?</p><p>Something smells sickly sweet, like burning sugar. It’s very close. Is it... coming from Katsuki? Katsuki shifts, and there’s a high squeak, and Xiao Mei cuddles up to her.</p><p>Something behind the burnt sugar in her nose tastes like overcooked meat.</p><p>After what seems like an eternity, guards rush into her chambers, shouting, and there’s gasps and choked noises and Katsuki won’t let her turn around or peer over his shoulder and <em>when,</em> she thinks, <em>did he get so big?</em></p><p>Her mother arrives at some point, and Mei only catches a glimpse of her when she sinks to her knees beside them and grabs both of them in an embrace.</p><p>Mei’s foggy brain stalls a little bit more, because when was the last time-?</p><p><em>Thank you,</em> her mother is whispering into Katsuki’s spiked mess of hair, <em>thank you.</em> She’s unmindful of how taut the muscles in his shoulders have pulled.</p><p>Mei still doesn’t quite know what happened.</p><p>Eventually, Katsuki lets her go, and she starts to understand. The curtains above her bed are torn and there is a bloody knife on the floor being gingerly picked up by one of the guards and there are little scorch marks all over the room.</p><p>There are two large scorch marks in separate places on the carpet and <em>oh.</em></p><p><em>Oh,</em> her uncooperative brain goes, <em>oh.</em></p><p>Assassins.</p><p>“What’s wrong with her?” Katsuki is snarling at her mother, which is. A bad idea. Nobody does that unless they want to die a horrible, painful death. “Where are her damn bodyguards? And why the fuck is she so messed up? She can’t fucking defend herself like this, isn’t she supposed to be trained to hell and back for this shit?”</p><p>Her mother doesn’t hesitate. She doesn’t even frown at him either, and Mei wonders if this night - morning? - can get any weirder. “Her food was spiked. The cooks have been... dealt with. Her bodyguards are nowhere to be found.”</p><p>Her tone suggests what will happen to them if they ever are, and Mei thinks that being drugged absolutely probably accounts for the mess her head is right now. “We’ll take her to our healers; she’ll be fine. Young man... thank you again.”</p><p>Her mother... bows. Her mother <em>bows,</em> and Katsuki’s eyes widen. He turns away a moment later with a scoff, but his shoulders are settled in an awkward slouch <span>and he shoves his hands in his pockets. “Don’t fuckin thank me, lady,” He mutters.</span></p><p>Her mother arches an eyebrow and Katsuki flushes. “What? It’s not like people are <em>supposed</em> to go crawling through your heiress’ windows at ass o-fucking clock in the goddamn morning. I happened to be up, and she’s. She’s entertaining sometimes, unlike the rest of you-“</p><p>One of the guards stifles a laugh. Katsuki switches tracks to glare at him, ears pink.</p><p>Mei thinks that maybe, there is a smile twitching at the corners of her mother’s mouth.</p><p> </p><p>XxXOoO </p><p> </p><p>“You’re leaving.”</p><p>“I am.” </p><p>Katsuki is quiet for a long, long time, and Mei can feel his even breathing from where her back is pressed to his. </p><p>“You’re sure?” He asks, voice low.  </p><p>His tone gives nothing away. Mei tilts her head back to rest it against his spine, scratching at Xiao Mei’s ears. </p><p>“... I am.” </p><p>Katsuki is quiet again. Mei watches the stars above them, clear and bright against the inky darkness of the sky, and wonders what it would be like to stay here, now, forever, sitting in silence with her best friend and staring up into the night. </p><p>Wonders, with a familiar, deep, aching kind of want, what it would be like to not be Mei Chang, Emperor’s daughter, Heiress-of-the-Chang-clan. </p><p>She wonders what it would be like to stay here, now, forever, and not have to go off searching for leverage to keep her clan in the Emperor’s - her father’s, and that title always seems to ring empty when she thinks it - favor. </p><p>Katsuki says, “Okay.” </p><p>Mei wonders if she’d dreaded his acceptance worse than his anger. </p><p>Then, Katsuki says, because he wasn’t done, “I’m coming with you.” </p><p>It’s not a request. </p><p>Mei presses her lips together and scrunches up her face and tries not to cry too hard in her relief because <em>she didn’t even have to ask. </em></p><p> </p><p>XxXOoO  </p><p> </p><p>“I leave for <em>ten damn minutes,”</em> Katsuki’s voice growls from the doorway, full weight of his ire completely on Mei, which, for the record, she would like to say is <em>very unfair. </em></p><p>“Wait!” She tells him, “Wait! Guess what? You’ll never guess what, Baku, you’ll never guess - I found an Ishvalan!” </p><p>Katsuki stops, glancing around the abandoned ruin of a house. He must not care that Scar is really big and halfway out of a crouch even though she <em>just </em>healed his leg, because Katsuki strides over to her and starts messing up her hair. </p><p>Her protests are met with merciless repitions of, “This is what you get for being reckless, brat.”</p><p>Scar sits back down after a moment, but watches them warily. Yoki quivers in a corner in fear of Xiao Mei, as things should be. </p><p>Mei starts when Katsuki drops a bag into her hand. “You’re not allowed to collapse from exhaustion three seconds after I leave to find food, pipsqueak. That’s just fuckin’ rude.”</p><p>Mei sticks her tongue out at him. He scowls. Mei knows he was just worried - even if the big baby would never admit it - but that doesn’t mean she can’t tease him. </p><p>Katsuki looks around again. He snorts at Yoki, and then tilts his head to look at Scar. </p><p>Scar looks back at him, and then his eyes get really big. “You’re… <em>Ishvalan?” </em></p><p>Mei nods vigorously. Yoki makes a choked noise from his corner.</p><p>“Who the hell are you?” Katsuki says, and Mei realizes the problem immediately.</p><p>Scar’s brow furrows. Mei bites her lip, looking between them. The next time Scar speaks, it’s in Amestrian. “Are you not comfortable speaking in front of valmolu?” The last word doesn’t translate well to Amestrian, Mei remembers, what was it?</p><p>Ah - <em>outsiders.</em> Or, she guesses, he could be using the original meaning.</p><p>She doesn’t much fancy being called a <em>first blasphemer, </em>though. “He doesn’t… he doesn’t speak Amestrian very well,” She tells Scar, and shuffles her feet a little. “And, um. He doesn’t know Ishvalan.”</p><p>Scar looks, at first, uncomprehending. Then, disbelief. Then, anger. <em>“Hocente,”</em> He spits, “They steal <em>everything. </em>Even his heritage.”</p><p>Mei bites her lip again. “He could learn,” She suggests slowly, shooting a look at Katsuki, who’s not following the conversation in words so much as the sharpness of his eyes tracking their emotions.</p><p>She switches to Xingese for a moment. “Do you… want to learn Ishvalan? Because I know you never talk about your family or where you were before I found you, but you never hide your eyes and I figure that means you don’t care, right?”</p><p>Katsuki stares at her, and Mei <em>knows</em> she used Xingese that time, what was with the blankness? “Because,” She continues, less frenzied, “You’d probably like to learn about your culture if you’ve been in Xing your entire life.”</p><p>He’s still staring. “You-“ He starts, stops, thinks. “I don’t- something is wrong, I don’t fucking know what you’re talking about.”</p><p>Mei laughs, a little hollowly. “C’mon, Katsuki,” She pokes, the wrong side of desperate. “That’s not funny. I know you don’t like to talk about your past, but-“</p><p>“Mei, you don’t understand,” Katsuki interrupts, wild. “I don’t fucking- I don’t- <em>when</em> did you start thinking I was just hiding things from you? I’ve never-“</p><p>“Hey, wait, calm down- we can figure this out-“ Mei is scared; Katsuki <em>never</em> acts like this.</p><p>Katsuki grabs her shoulders, hands trembling. “Mei, you don’t- this is such a fucking mess-“</p><p>Yoki rolls his eyes and says snidely, “Well, spit it out already.”</p><p><em>“I don’t remember!”</em> Katsuki twists around, grabbing Yoki by the collar and shaking him. “I don’t fucking remember anything! I can’t think fucking past when Mei found me outside her fucking compound, but I had to have gotten there somehow, right?! I can’t just- <em>not</em> have a past! But I <em>can’t remember any of it!”</em></p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. days like these</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hey!! So it's been a heckin while, which I am very sorry about. Here's your chapter!!</p><p> </p><p>Quick warning: there are thoughts of implied rape, which did not actually occur but one of the characters thinks it did.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>There is a certain numbness that settles on Katsuki even before the halfway mark of the questions and halfhearted revealing of what little he does remember.</p><p>Kind of like every question answered with another <em>I don’t know</em> drains another bit of emotion out of him.</p><p>Mei translates questions from Scar and it’s- it’s <em>frustrating,</em> to be the only one in the room out of the loop until Mei speaks up.</p><p>(Weirdly enough, the Yoki guy is pretty fluent in Xingese, but that’s not the point.)</p><p>More than frustrating, but eventually even that loses its edge. “How did you know what to tell me?” One of the questions from Mei is. “When I asked where you learned to fight. You told me… <em>Aizawa-sensei.”</em></p><p>The honorific is unfamiliar in her mouth but at least she tries. “I get pieces,” Katsuki mutters. “Little things. You asked, and the name was already waiting.”</p><p>Mei looks like she considers that for a long time. “Do you…” She hesitates. “Do you know anything about him?”</p><p>Katsuki wishes he had anything more concrete to tell her than, “The first time I thought it—his name. It came with… flashes. Fucking insignificant little details. A desk, the color yellow, a little girl. I don’t even fucking know what he looks like.”</p><p>He doesn’t need the apology he can see ready to slip off her tongue and gives her a sharp, <em>“Don’t.”</em> Because he doesn’t need that shit. Not right now.</p><p>Mei swallows her apology and the questions taper off, because Scar and Yoki don’t know shit about him to begin with and can’t be <em>that</em> curious, and Mei already asked him everything she’d find important.</p><p>Things like, <em>do you know your parents’ names,</em> and-</p><p>No. </p><p>Just that his father was quiet, and kind, and that his mother was fierce, and strong, and—he doesn’t say this part out loud—together, they feel like everything-he-wants-to-be.</p><p>Thinking of his father gives him <em>soft,</em> and thinking of his mother gives him <em>loud,</em> and he can think all he wants but he never gets past what they make him <em>feel.</em></p><p>He doesn’t know what they look like, either.</p><p>When the silence has stretched a few moments too long, Katsuki snaps roughly, “We should get going. We need to make it to Central, remember?”</p><p>And Mei is his friend but Katsuki doesn’t appreciate having to air out what little of his past he has in front of strangers, so he doesn’t offer his back for her to climb onto this time.</p><p><em>She could have waited until we were alone,</em> he thinks sourly, and knows it’s unfair but this just feels like <em>him</em>—and whatever anyone might think, anger all the time is a comfort, because at least he knows it’s <em>his.</em></p><p>Besides, his irritation at Mei will fade within hours.</p><p>—</p><p>They travel one whole day together and Katsuki is sick of it already. Of course <em>he</em> wasn’t consulted on that. He feels like a mannequin or something—Scar won’t stop looking at him like he’s a display or he’s missing an arm or he’s some idiot with a vacant look.</p><p>“Oi, pipsqueak,” Katsuki grunts once they set up camp for the night. “What’s Scar's deal?”</p><p>To her credit, Mei doesn’t ask what he means—she knows better than to play dumb when he’s already seen how annoyingly perceptive she is.</p><p>She asks Scar something in bubbly Amestrian. He answers at length, in much less bubbly Amestrian. Mei turns back to Katsuki, chewing her lip and watching Xiao Mei wobble curiously in scar-face’s direction.</p><p>“You never really got the chance to answer my question from before, about learning Ishvalan. Scar’d like to know if you want to.”</p><p>Katsuki dies a little inside every time he hears the name. Who fucking picked it, a child?</p><p>As for the question… Ishvalan culture. <em>Katsuki's</em> culture, apparently. Does he want to learn?</p><p>"… why not," He grunts.</p><p>Worth a shot, right? Maybe it'll knock something loose in his head.</p><p>—</p><p>It does not, in fact, knock anything loose in his head. It is, however, surprisingly interesting.</p><p>They start small. Yes, which is <em>de.</em> No, which is <em>moku.</em> Moku also happens to mean <em>zero.</em> Hello is just as simple—fuisho, which literally means <em>day</em>—but ‘goodbye’ is where things start to complicate.</p><p>Scar says that in… well, Mei says the words he uses are ‘proper tongue’, which sounds like a translation fumble. He says that in proper tongue, <em>goodbye</em> is <em>binee yishik kif’hid qoi.</em> It’s simply <em>binee</em> in casual speaking.</p><p>“Are there usually phrases in the place of words?” Katsuki grumbles.</p><p>Mei, translating for Scar, says, “Apparently it means ‘until we meet again’, because proper tongue—is he saying formal speech, do you think?—doesn’t have a word like goodbye. Binee is just ‘until’, which is… I think he just said it’s slang.”</p><p><em>Oh yeah,</em> Katsuki thinks. <em>This is going great. Surely no mishaps can occur when learning a language through two layers of translation.</em></p><p>But he still thinks it’s interesting. There’s usually multiple meanings to each word. Like the word for <em>ink</em>—antoca—being the words cold (anto) and blood (noca). Scar explains that the literal translation <em>is</em> cold blood, because in the Legend of Creation—which Mei tells him is an Ishvalan belief about the beginning of the world—when Ishvala struck the snowy mountain tops, they bled ink, creating the dark-haired and pale-skinned Xingese people.</p><p>At the start of each lesson, Katsuki wonders if something will come back to him. At the end of them, he wonders if he’s not remembering anything because he was too young to learn any of it.</p><p>He thinks he grew up in Xing, probably, since he can speak the language. And it’s strange, so he asks for reasons he might not have grown up in Ishval.</p><p><em>“Hocentewe,”</em> Scar spits like a curse—and there are none in Ishvalan, Katsuki had asked—and refuses to explain further until he’s had time to find the words.</p><p>“Hocentewe inih tuaiwe,” He starts eventually, and then seems to remember he's the only one fluent in Ishvalan. He starts again in Amestrian.</p><p>Mei hurriedly repeats, “State Alchemists are killers."</p><p>Scar, even though his face is stormy and his shoulders tense, remembers to pace his sentences to give Mei time to repeat them.</p><p>“They’re sick, and… fake healthy? They’re poison." Mei hesitates. "We died like dogs: put down in our beds."</p><p>It continues in that vein for some time. Katsuki learns that Ishval might still exist, but it is a home to no one any longer. That Amestrian State Alchemists murdered the whole goddamn country, and then burned it for good measure.</p><p>The next day, lessons resume as usual, but the vocabulary focuses on the words like prayer; tokaanha, and oath; yaen. He learns that the Ishvalan word for State Alchemist almost is a swear, that it means some unflattering combination of <em>wild dogs</em> and <em>massacre.</em> Genocidal mutts.</p><p>He learns, too, that hatred is a deep and festering thing. That Scar is overtaken with it. And that he can't even blame the man for it.</p><p>—</p><p>Life goes on. Mei attempts to teach Katsuki more Amestrian than the few words he picks up from the back and forth between Mei and Scar, which he isn't the least bit invested in. She manages some things, and not other things.</p><p>But eventually they reach Central, and Katsuki is <em>this close</em> to murdering Yoki in his sleep, so he suggests they split up for the day to explore.</p><p>So they do.</p><p>—</p><p><em>Well,</em> he thinks, barely two hours later and understanding maybe three of the rapid-fire Amestrian words the military guy is saying to him and Mei, <em>I guess splitting up was a pretty piss idea after all.</em></p><p>He’s not gonna lie though, the break from Scar’s side glances and Yoki’s unwarranted disdain was nice while it lasted.</p><p>“Uh, Katsuki?” Mei is asking in Xingese. “Where’d you put my bag? The little one.”</p><p>Katsuki pauses. The military guy is staring. “I don’t fuckin’ know, what’s it look like?”</p><p>Mei frowns. “Small and purple. Like, barely bigger than your hand. I need it.”</p><p>“Well <em>I</em> don’t have it,” Katsuki defends, “I’ve never seen it in my life!”</p><p>“Not funny, I <em>need</em> it-“</p><p>“I just <em>told</em> you I don’t know where it is-“</p><p>The military guy interrupts with some more Amestrian. Mei laughs awkwardly and shrugs.</p><p>He says something else, and Mei heaves a sigh. “Alright Katsuki, we’ve lost our passports. So. We’re gonna go with this guy here to get that sorted out.” She gives him a squint-y look. “Thanks for that.”</p><p>“OI!”</p><p>—</p><p>The boy is sitting on Breda’s desk.</p><p>Typically, when suspects of illegal immigration are brought into military headquarters, they don’t hop up on one of the soldiers’ desks.</p><p>The boy is very… relaxed. This wouldn't be half as alarming if the girl didn’t keep shooting him weird looks.</p><p>“Small rat,” The boy says out of nowhere, and at least half of Roy’s team jumps, “Fuck off and die.”</p><p>Falman looks ready to go for his gun at the heavily accented maybe-threat even without any real hostility behind the words.</p><p>The girl bursts into giggles. “Oh my <em>god,”</em> She snorts, “I can’t believe you.”</p><p>The boy squints at her, like gears are twisting together in his head. “I am here,” He says finally.</p><p>That just makes the girl laugh harder. “I’m sorry,” She says to the room at large, still giggling. “His Amestrian is… really bad.”</p><p>“It is fuck not, small rat. Die.”</p><p>The girl has to hold onto the corner of Havoc’s desk to keep standing while she laughs.</p><p>Roy runs through the conversation in his head and decides questions are better than waiting in silence. “Have you been traveling together long?”</p><p>The girl straightens, wiping tears from her eyes. “Eh, kinda. We’ve known each other for two years now, I think.”</p><p>The boy scoffs, leaning back on his hands. “Katsuki,” He says, pointing to himself with a mean tilt to his mouth. Then he points at the girl and snickers wordlessly.</p><p>The girl blinks, and then her mouth opens in an ‘o’. <em>“That’s</em> why you’re all happy!”</p><p>The boy stops snickering, eyes squinting again. The girl switches seamlessly into Xingese. </p><p>Mustang only catches a word he thinks means <em>laugh,</em> but he’s enough out of practice he doesn’t get anything else.</p><p>He’s been… trying, he admits, not to pay too much attention to the boy. His hair is light, much lighter than most anyone’s around here. Even Hawkeye’s is darker—the boy’s is too light, too ashy.</p><p>That’s not exactly common in Xing. Or anywhere else. The girl’s hair and skin are the typical deep black and severe pale associated with Xing, but the boy has a tan, for one thing. For another…</p><p>For another, Roy thinks, swallowing the irrational dread trying to climb up his throat like a particularly stubborn frog, his eyes may have the same slant as the girl’s and even Roy’s own, but they are a deep, unmistakable crimson.</p><p>And since the start of this all—Roy finding them in the middle of the street arguing in Xingese, a request for passports met with more arguing, this entire wait for the paperwork to file through to be signed—Roy has been trying really very hard to ignore the fact that the boy-</p><p>What had he called himself? <em>Katsuki?</em></p><p>-the boy looks almost very close to familiar.</p><p>Roy does not want to wonder if he saw this boy’s parents—parent? Katsuki is at least quarter Xingese—in Ishval, does not want to think about ages and statistics and probability, does not want his mind to keep running numbers and scenarios and <em>memories.</em> The thing about brains, though, is that they tend to work the hardest when you don't want them to.</p><p>Roy has been trying not to pay much attention to the boy, but when he doesn’t respond in Xingese—rather, a series of rolling sounds that make Riza stiffen and Roy himself start—he can’t bite down on suspicions anymore.</p><p>“On denhe arenki li ruqev eona,” He sneers, darkly amused, and Roy does not know what each individual word means, but he has never forgotten the sound of Ishvalan.</p><p>(How <em>can</em> he forget it, when he hears every scream from Ishval played back in his dreams?)</p><p>The girl laughs again, loud and clear, but with an undertone of something else. She responds in Xingese—<em>stick to strength,</em> Roy takes from piecing together the few words he recognizes.</p><p>Katsuki nods amiably. </p><p>“What did he say?” Fuery asks curiously, and it takes all of Roy’s willpower not to twitch.</p><p>The girl smiles, and it bears an unsettling resemblance to the mean look Katsuki wore when he introduced himself. “Loosely? He’d give an arm to see your reactions when you find out who I am.” She pauses thoughtfully. “His Ishvalan is a work in progress. He doesn’t even <em>try</em> with Amestrian. I’m pretty sure he hates you guys,” She laughs again.</p><p>Fuery had blanched when she said <em>Ishvalan,</em> likely realizing what had Hawkeye and Roy so tense.</p><p>The last part of the girl’s sentence—spoken through a laugh, with ease, and without the air of an actual joke.</p><p><em>I’m pretty sure he hates you guys,</em> and Roy feels sick.</p><p>“Fuck,” Katsuki agrees, and Havoc splutters.</p><p>“Wait, wait, did he only teach himself the swears?”</p><p>Katsuki considers Havoc. “No. I learn other.”</p><p>The girl rolls her eyes. “Yeah, but clearly not what <em>I</em> actually tried to teach you.”</p><p>Katsuki looks at her for a long moment. Then he gives her a wicked smirk and Roy just about has a <em>goddamn heart attack.</em></p><p>“Fuck the military,” He drawls, concise and clear, still smirking, and the girl loses it and has to sit down on the floor.</p><p>Roy is thankful he’s already sitting, because suddenly everything's adding up too quickly and things are starting to make ominous amounts of sense.</p><p>Hawkeye is stone-faced next to him, and Roy knows that means she’s noticed as well.</p><p>He almost misses the girl’s response—“Is <em>that</em> what you and your lokui friend have been rehearsing for three days?”—because Katsuki’s smirk is a dead fucking ringer for Crimson Alchemist Solf J. Kimblee’s.</p><p>Roy’s disbelief drowns in the numbness that follows the single quiet whisper of <em>but Katsuki’s eyes are red.</em></p><p>And then there are more whispers, so many he hardly tracks the conversation in front of him—“No nameless trust.” “You’ll trust him soon though, right?” “Not fuck know.” “But he’s always teaching you stuff you couldn’t learn as a kid!”—and he’ll have to comb through it later with his team because the whispers just keep coming.</p><p>Katsuki’s eyes are red.</p><p>Kimblee was in Ishval.</p><p><em>Kimblee was in Ishval</em> and <em>how old is Katsuki</em> and <em>Kimblee is part Xingese but he has less than Roy</em> and <em>Katsuki doesn’t look very Xingese at all</em> and <em>Kimblee was in Ishval.</em></p><p>Kimblee was- is- Kimblee is horrible, was horrible in Ishval and still is now because he’d <em>enjoyed</em> the killing, and Kimblee was in Ishval but he <em>knows better.</em> Kimblee wouldn’t, he <em>wouldn’t,</em> State Alchemists were trained to be <em>better than that.</em></p><p>Katsuki isn’t smirking anymore, but Roy remembers that smirk from years ago, covered in sweat and desert dust, remembers that smirk from <em>it’s such a rush, isn’t it.</em></p><p>And then another thing—what had the girl said earlier, about Katsuki’s Ishvalan? A <em>work in progress?</em> And again, just now. <em>He’s always teaching you stuff you couldn’t learn as a kid.</em> Someone was teaching Katsuki Ishvalan. Teaching, even though Katsuki was- what, seventeen? </p><p>What stopped him from learning? He spoke Xingese naturally; had he grown up there instead? He had a Xingese name, it was plausible.</p><p>That would make the question why—no, not even—Roy forcibly shuts down his train of thought and reroutes and makes a decision.</p><p><em>We are not,</em> he thinks, <em>here to ask about Katsuki’s childhood.</em></p><p>They were just here about some allegedly misplaced passports.</p><p>They were not here for Katsuki’s past. They were not here for Solf J. Kimblee. They were not here for Ishval.</p><p>Roy makes a decision, right then, to not ask. Asking questions invites answers, and answers are not something he’s prepared for when the questions have only barely begun to form.</p><p>Answers are something he might not ever be prepared for.</p><p>(Katsuki’s eyes are red.)</p><p><em>Kimblee wouldn’t,</em> Roy thinks, and it is utterly lacking in any sort of confidence.</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>For those wondering!!<br/>Hocente: relatively new word to the Ishvalan language; it means State Alchemist and translates literally to something like "massacre mutt".</p><p>Hocentewe inih tuaiwe: "State Alchemists are killers/murderers". ('we' is the plural form)</p><p>On denhe arenki li ruqev eona: "I give arm to see them", which doesn't translate very well and is slightly broken (which is understandable because he's not really fluent lol)</p><p>I hope you guys enjoyed! I had fun with the language pieces</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Ya gotta say, this is good, right? I’ve totally outdone myself, and I’ve got Plans for this fic. Plans, I tell you, Plans.</p><p>Leave a comment if you’re comfy telling me what you thought! Thanks for reading!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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